The NHS Confederation has said it is “deeply disappointed” at Care Quality Commission plans to raise registration fees by up to 67 per cent, despite an initial promise to make the system cost neutral.

The confederation’s response to a CQC consultation on its fee increase for 2011-12 calls it “a major cost pressure for NHS providers who are already having to make major real savings in response to the current difficult financial climate”.

It says: “Many question the apparent failure of the CQC to account for the wider economic circumstances in setting its fees.”

As an interim measure in the first year of registration, 2010-11 fees were based on bed numbers. But the new system charges fees based on providers’ operating revenue, number of locations and sector, up to a ceiling of £115,000 a year.

The confederation agrees with banding trusts depending on their size, but has argued that only operating revenue generated by registered activities should be taken into account.

That would exclude income from research, patient transport services and training.

Confederation senior policy manager Frances Blunden said: “To our knowledge, there is nothing in the consultation that will ensure CQC registration is cost neutral - despite promises, when registration fees were introduced, that it would be.

“Trusts took on these fees based on this promise but it has so far not been honoured and that is deeply disappointing.”

The consultation response also questions the wisdom of shifting costs from one public sector body to multiple other centrally funded bodies.

The confederation is raising the matter with the Department of Health.

A CQC spokeswoman said consultation responses were being reviewed and she did not want to “pre-empt” the final response.

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